i think the basslines in particular are very d&b influenced, they don't wobble like dubstep or bounce like ukg, when the bassline comes its like a sustained thick block of bass that starts on the first beat and then modulates a bit up and down, what used to be called "dred bass" back in the day

also the beats aren't swung so much as they are chopped, it's not so hard to count a steady 4x4 over the measures (in eight notes anyway), pure rollers

track 6, supreme architecture, is from the universe where after 96's "stonekiller" and 97's epic "controlled developments",source direct started listening to german dub house instead of fanatically going harder and harder in a desperate attempt to win back wire critics

track 4, sunset (mumbai slum edition) is from the universe where benny ill's mom gave birth to talvin singh. in this universe, his crew still has a horrible name like "lahore headspace foundation". btw i think it's weird to call a remix an edition.

track 9, questions is pretty much a straightforward rip of the weirder side of hidden agenda in a universe where kirk degiorgio used to breakdance with the guys from hidden agenda in a graffiti'd up shopping center.

track 2 is maybe like a plaid track but in a universe w/ a not twee and turning out embarrassingly simpleminded plaid that confused jungle with frantic breakbeats, but instead two dudes that tool around the countryside in matching black bmws

I'm listening to track 6 now. Hmmm... I see the alternative universe thing now, which is what perplexed me a bit at first. It's almost like this is the first truly 'retro' bass album - taking ideas and tropes firmly rooted in the last 25 years of bass music and seeing where else they might have gone had fashion and music not been in such a hurry to move on. This is much better heard as a compilation of lost and rare 12"s than an album of new music. Taken in this context, it's pretty cool.

track 6, supreme architecture, is from the universe where after 96's "stonekiller" and 97's epic "controlled developments",source direct started listening to german dub house instead of fanatically going harder and harder in a desperate attempt to win back wire critics

yeah what popped into my head at times on this was that Source Direct album from '99 that no-one bought - I've not listened to it for maybe a decade so was alive to the possibility of being way off, but maybe my ailing memories are valid after all

in terms of how LHF chop up drums and use samples in the form of big slabs of dialogue, Altered Natives is prolly the closest thing active at the moment I think, although his productions are a good deal more cheerful

My basic feeling about this album is that I like it but maybe not as much as I expected to. At the moment I can't easily sum up why that is - I think it might be that I've heard some of the samples that are used prominently on this a few too many times before. Definitely need to spend more time with the album though.

^Yeah sure, a lot of the album seems to be implicitly saying 'we place ourselves within the tradition of proper London music, and here are all our proper London reference points' - and I don't have a problem with that as such, in fact in a way I admire them for nailing their colours to the mast like that, but still.. taking for example No Worries and Base 2 Dark by Double Helix, I sort of feel like once you take in the references to the New Blood and Asylum tunes (both of which are much better than the DH ones) there's not so much going on there, too much space is devoted to the act of referencing/allegiance rather than doing something with the references (although Base 2 Dark does have a pretty cool beat tbf).I dunno though, I don't want to go in too hard on this because I do feel that it's something I need to give more listens to in order to fully get my head round it.

'we place ourselves within the tradition of proper London music, and here are all our proper London reference points'

Don't know if this is because it's a subject close to my heart at the moment, but I'm getting more of a "raving in fields" kind of vibe, or like the ghosts of raves that once happened on the outskirts of the M25. The video helps with this of course - something kind of rural about it all.

^Hmmm, maybe. I think perhaps my interpretation has been swayed by reading interviews with them where they've talked at length about things like all the different pirate radio stations that they listened to from the 90s onwards, but there are undeniable jungle/d&b elements to quite a few of the tunes here. I like your take on it too though, there are definitely some tunes that have that kind of swimmy euphoric feel to them where you can half-imagine a DJ playing them at sunrise near the end of an all-night rave in the late 80s.Candy Rain by Amen Ra is another very big tune on this album, and I cosign all the appreciation for Akashic Visions upthread. So there's lots of good things going on here, but I think the combination of sample/reference point over-familiarity with the perhaps being just too many tunes is holding me back from being head-over-heels crazy about it, at least for the moment.

It's definitely got that same feel as the first Horsepower Productions album - probably the closest actual sonic reference point (albeit boringly so: comparing to Hidden Agenda being both more interesting as an approach and more inviting as a recommendation) esp. tunes like "Pimp Flavours" and "Fat Larry's Skank" - to the effect that it's kind of exhausting even if it's not strictly speaking "samey" throughout.

Yeah obviously I get that this is partly a compilation of their earlier releases as well as new material, but I still feel they could have trimmed it a bit. Haven't listened to that first Horsepower Prods album in aaaaages actually, might be time to dig it out again. (I remember preferring it by miles to their 2nd album, but I guess most people felt that way?).